SUFFERING

We read 1 Peter 4 this last Sunday in our gathering. It repeatedly says that suffering is central to following Christ. I think it actually says that as we embrace suffering we are enabled to better put sin behind us...
2Since Jesus went through everything you're going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way.
That seems so antithetical to the pursuit of success and happiness that many Christians feel is foundationally linked to faith in Jesus Christ. I'm not sure how to even think about suffering. Am I to seek suffering then? That seems excessive. It seems to say that we are to accept suffering when it comes our way. It says that Jesus was setting the example for us in going through suffering. Think about it, he endured being slandered and gossiped about, going without food and water for 40 days, having his hometown synagogue try to throw him off a cliff, having the leaders of the Jews in the Capitol of Judaism spread lies about him and plot against him, being surrounded by selfish mentally slow followers, being tried by a kangaroo court more interested in preserving their own power than justice, being beaten bloody and then being hung to spend his remaining hours of life suffering to death. We acn think his physical suffering is primarily meant but he suffered in lots of ways that we are made to suffer as well. What if when people slandered us we had compassion on them, trying to understand the low position they are in.
At the end of that chapter, Peter draws an anology between suffering and discipline. He says that if God's judgment starts with us that it will be worse for unbelievers. We could try to extrapolate what this means about unbelievers but I think it is meant to say something about us. Discipline to those who are willing to learn and grow is nothing to fear. So not only are we to accept suffering but we are try to learn from it.
What if we accepted suffering and expected it? What if that is what made us identifiable as Christians? How would that change what we valued? What we were seeking after in life?

FAITH

Christianity is dependent on faith. Not the kind of faith that means that "Yes" I believe in the trinity and the other 21 items on a particular doctrinal statement. Not the kind of faith that uses God as a vending machine to get what we want. In lot of ways both of those ideas are closer to control which is the opposite of faith. Faith is trusting God. Trusting God means not having the answers most of the time, not knowing the "why" of your particular situation, and still carrying on anyway. Trusting God can't happen if we don't really trust God.

Hebrews 11:8-10By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God's call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God.
11-12By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. That's how it happened that from one man's dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions.
13-16Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.

Trusting is one of the hardest things to do. Its a risk. No guarantees. No control. We have to take God at his word and even then his words often seem too few.

compassion for the undeserving

Today I got to experience some of what I imagine Jesus went through on the cross. Not the physical pain, but the mental struggle. Jesus is hanging there to help sinful humanity out and we are standing at his feet spitting on him and insulting him. Jesus is the son of God, legions of angels at his command. He created and sustains the very people cursing at him. He would not even have to flinch and they could all drop dead of heart attacks. He could have so easily put those mockers in their places. Did he want to? I would have...or would I? Today I got to find out. I responded to a fight at one of our high schools. I don't even know the details, but the instigator is there with three friends, being questioned and searched. One officer takes instigator aside and tries to get him to see how stupid what he almost just did was. Instigator refuses to admit doing much wrong and feins respect for the officer. The officer lets him go and as soon as he gets back out to the car with his friends he starts talking trash. They all start talking about crooked cops which we are not and have not been to them. They are issued ban and bar letters banning them from the school campus and they loudly cackle and joke about putting them in their glove box with their other ban and bar letters. They brag about stupid cops not catching them drinking alcohol underage. They are rude and disrespectful and are doing everything they can to offend us or pick a fight with us. Everything in me wants to take them up on the offer, to unleash on them the punishment past generations would have gladly given them. Punishment that would have "helped" them respect us. But that isn't what we do. I must not listen to that voice. I must find it in me to rise above and not get sucked in, and I did. All we were trying to do was help these people out. There was no appreciation, only scorn. There is nothing you can say to these kids they "know" everything. They must maintain an air of power and control. They have a smart ass answer for everything. I am not even a person to them. I am an opportunity to prove how "tough" they are, how "in control" they are. I didn't throw my pearls of wisdom before these "swine." I kept my mouth shut. It took everything in me and it has burned in me all evening. The next step...what I need to do next time I guess is to look on them as they mock me with compassion as Jesus did. Not quite there yet...

The ongoing danger of a sacrifice

We went back to the town I used to be a youth pastor in for a friend's birthday party. Everytime we go back I have a struggle inside. I have the overwhelming desire to see that church as people who threw me out. This is not the case though. The truth as I understand it is that I saw a problem that my conscience (in association with the Holy Spirit) wouldn't let me leave alone. I knew that fixing the problem might cost me my job, but in the end it didn't. It did strees my relationship with the leadership of the church though. I then developed some differing ways to look at the same set of core beliefs that I have always believed. I knew this new viewpoint did not line up with church doctrine and so again my conscience required me to take action. I could not honestly continue to take a pay check and call myself pastor in a church that had a doctrinal statement that I could not unreservedly support. I needed the freedom to listen to my conscience and the price would be my pastoral job. I decided after talking to many pastoral friends that I was willing to pay this price, not to mention that integrity and my conscience demanded that I pay up. I chose to leave. No one forced me out. If I had stayed they might have asked me to leave, and they should have since I could no longer whole heartedly support their doctrinal statement. I did not on my last Sunday as Pastor, when they graciously allowed me to preach, feel that I was an enemy of the congregation. And everytime I go back there and visit I am treated like royalty by everyone.
We are called on to make sacrifices in life. When we make them we are being like Jesus, willfuly giving up our "rights" for the good of others. The danger for we who have sacrificed is the danger of Satan's revisionist history. He tries to repaint the story to divide us against each other and to try to nullify and work against the character building that was accomplished through the sacrifice. I'm not blaming Satan though, a part of me "wants" to believe the new story. Sacrifice exposes my belly, my weakness. Satan's stories always put me back in a position of power. I really can't want to have the upper hand, and desire to sacrifice too. The two ideas are anit-thetical to each other. Blessed are the weak. Just as I had to decide to sacrifice in the moment I also have to commit to continue to the sacrifice and not give in to fear, which makes me want to regain control and do damage control on my image.
Lord help me to give up control and not be concerned with my image.

last excerpt

Alright if you hate these book excerpts this is the last one. It is the last passage of the book...
The story goes that a great artist was wandering the mountains of Switzerland when some officials came upon him and demanded a passport. "I do not have it with me," the artist replied, "But my name is Dore."
"Prove it," demanded the officials, knowing who Dore was, but not being certain that the wandering man was truthful.
The artist took some paper and pencils from his backpack and began to skillfully and beautifully sketch a group of peasants standing nearby.
"Enough," said the officials. "No question, you are Dore."
It is far less important for the watching world to hear you say you are following Jesus than to actually see you follow him with authenticity. All the profession in the universe is no substitute for being, knowing, thinking, and doing in the likeness of God as the Israel of God--the light of the world and the salt of the earth.
Follow Jesus. Come and see. Take full advantage of the new opportunity. Play an active role in the building of a new worldwide community of people who take the Word seriously and are trying to live out the new way to be human the Word teaches. Prove you are following him by the story you tell with your life. Love God and your neighbor. Care for widows and orphans. Love mercy more than being right. Tell the truth, act justly, and by all means, be humble and thankful. Never tire of doing good. Be generous and willing to share. Use whatever gift you have to serve others. Love your enemies. Hate what is evil. Do for others what God has done for you. Forgive as he forgave you. Show respect. Love the community of invitation. Trust God's Word. Be kind. Stay alert. Trust God for the unknown. Pray, watch, listen.

Another excerpt

Remember the composite couple Brian and Kelly? Their goal as young people was to attend the right university, graduate, and find a job that paid well. Their goal as parents was to see that their children studied for an employable profession. They could see being grandparents one day, but only if their children were settled down and financially prepared. Here, too, money was the focus.
You might say to yourself, "Hey that's my focus too and what's wrong with it?" What's wrong is that the focus exists because of something other than God and his ways. It's a prison for the mind. At Leavenworth or San Quentin, cannabis or cigarettes are the prison currency. In the prison of the mind, it's money. Mary Pipher writes that, "we all suffer from existential flu as we search for meaning in a culture that values money, not meaning. Everyone I know wants to do good work. But right now we have an enormous gap between doing what's meaningful and doing what is reimbursed. Many citizens, including followers of Jesus, have done away with the gap altogether and have learned to say, "Show me the money." The money is the meaning...
...John Winthrop (1588-1649) defined success not as material wealth but as "the creation of a community in which genuinely ethical and spiritual life could be lived." Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), on the other hand, gave "classical expression to what many felt in the eighteenth century-and many have felt ever since-to be the most important thing about America: the chance for the individual to get ahead on his own initiative." This became known as utilitarian individualism. The idea being that if a society will allow each person the freedom to pursue his or her own interests, the social good will automatically emerge...Women, clergy, poets, and writers raised objections to a life lived in pursuit of material gain. People still raise objections today, but their voices are mice in a world of elephants.
One voice that is not small is the voice of Jesus...I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear(Matt 6:25)...You can not serve both God and things on earth. It's futile to have two ultimate goals or points of reference for your actions. You already recognize that one must become subordinate to the other (Matt 6:24)...many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. (Phi 3:18-20) Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs...but you, man of God, flee from this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, endurance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses (1 Tim 6:6-12)...Don't put your hope in wealth, which is so uncertain but put your hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Be rich in good deeds, generous and willing to share (1 Tim 6:17-18)...While you work here on the earth, do not worry about things on earth. Instead seek the kingdom first and always first. When you get up in the morning think about the kingdom. From now on make it your top priority. Everything else you need will be provided (Matt 6:33)...Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you...Jesus came announcing a kingdom that must 'overturn all other agendas.' This includes our agendas regarding work, money, success, peace, and safety, and the goals we instill in our children." New Way To Be Human by Charlie Peacock pgs 167-171

LOST season premiere

I start off by apologizing to Uncle Herbert in Germany, and anyone who didn't watch LOST for whom this will all sound like gibberish.

OK so we learned that the others have a small base of operations on the base that seems to accomodate them comfortably on the island but that they are kind of stuck with each other (based on the argument about the book at the book club meeting). They feel protective and seem to feel they own the island. They experienced an earthquake just before the plane broke apart over them which goes along with the story that Desmond caused the plane crash by not pushing the button in the hatch. They didn't seem to forsee or know that the plane was going to crash, but Ben-Henry Gayle was quick to jump on the opportunity to explore what would be left after the crash. His immediate reaction to seeing the plane come apart overhead is to control its survivors. That seems rather fearful and conspiratory on his part. How could you see victims of a plane crash as a threat? Unless they are being tested and experimented on as well!?!
You can't really trust anything they said in the presence of the survivors, but what seemed to be clearly established is that there is some kind of tension between Juliet and Ben, although they still seem to be cooperating in testing Jack, Sawyer and Kate. It appears Kate fought Ben instead of eating breakfast. I don't know whether Sawyer's escape attempt was an attempt to set up trust between him and Carl, the other guy in the cage, for some future purpose. If it was legit then where did Carl come from. He'd have to have come from within the others own ranks. If he was a deserter from them it seems unlikely that they would put him in a position to build an alliance with the survivors. So I think Carl is a plant. But what are Ben and Juliet trying to get out of Jack? What does he have to offer them? And since they had that whole dossier on Jack they must have some kind of regular communication with civilization and some pretty deep investigative powers?
After just watching the opening sequence again I noticed that Juliet was kind of coming apart in her house before the book club meeting, unhappy with her existence. She had displeased Ben by her choice of book for the book club. Also when the camera panned out from their camp it showed that the tail section had crashed only about a mile away.
I also downloaded the Killers new album Sam's Town which seems good but maybe is lacking the edgyness of their first album.
Over dinner tonight we read a verse from the Gospel of Matthew which described the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus and God the Father saying that Jesus was his son whom he was pleased with. Rachel has always referred to Jesus as God and been slightly confused whenever I try to talk about Jesus and God the Father. Tonight after she read this scripture passage she said, "So this is where there are 2 Gods dad?" Its funny how we as adults forget and begin to talk and think about God as if he and how he exists could really fit in our tiny brains. Rachel still seems to understand that acutely.